Wi-Fi Direct

It's important for firefighters or members of disaster response crews to stay in touch with one another during operations, which is of course why they carry two-way radios. Researchers from Norway's SINTEF group, however, are developing a system that could help even more. It allows users to receive and read text messages hands-free, via their jackets. Read More

When Apple first introduced the Lightning connector with the launch of the iPhone 5 in September 2012, 30-pin to Lightning adapters were also announced. This gave folks who'd just spent a wad of cash on quality speaker docks from the likes of Bowers & Wilkins a way to avoid expensive upgrades, or helped prevent the forced retirement of old favorites like the Bose SoundDock 10. Music lovers could also choose to go wireless with a 30-pin Bluetooth receiver and enjoy fairly decent fidelity, so long as they didn't wander too far off the beaten track and go out of range. Now Sweden's C4 Electronics has released the Dolry Stone, a cute little device that's claimed to be the world's first 30-pin adapter compatible with Apple AirPlay, DLNA, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct. Read on for our hands-on review. Read More

General Motors is working to expand upon its vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems that are being developed to allow information to be shared between vehicles and infrastructure to provide advance warning of potential road hazards, such as stalled vehicles, slippery roads, road works, intersections, stop signs and the like. The automaker is now looking to add pedestrians and cyclists to the mix so a car can detect them in low visibility conditions before the driver does. Read More

Searching for a Wi-Fi hotspot on those increasing number of occasions when the need to update a Facebook profile while out and about outweighs all other concerns is much easier than it used to be, but can still be a trial. But now that the Wi-Fi Alliance has started certifying products capable of communicating with each other without the need to join up to a home, office or hotspot network, that tiresome search may soon be a thing of the past. Read More